Starting from Square One
by uzumaki rakku
Summary: There are many blonds in the world. No one ever said that the one Harry met in Madam Malkin's shop had to be Draco Malfoy, right? Hence, this crossover. "Hi!" the boy said, tone as bright as his hair. "Hogwarts too?" —And so, he ends up with a new friend.
1. Square 1: A Friendly Blond Boy

**AN: So! I decided I should update _something. _It's kind of sad that I'm not done with _Lake_ yet, but it can't be helped. Ah well! Anyway, I think this crossover would be quite nice too. ^_^**

_**Summary**: There are many blonds in the world. No one ever said that the one Harry met in Madam Malkin's shop had to be Draco Malfoy, right? Hence, this crossover. "Hi!" the boy said, tone as bright as his hair. "Hogwarts too?" —And so, he ends up with a new friend._

**Italicised opening passage taken from _Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone,_ to provide the setting. And, of course, that's definitely not mine.**

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><p><strong><em>Starting from Square One<em>**

_(Alternative title: The World Cannot Survive This Particular Blond...)_

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**Square #1: A Friendly Blond Boy**

_One wild cart-ride later they stood blinking in the sunlight outside Gringotts. Harry didn't know where to run first now that he had a bag full of money. He didn't have to know how many Galleons there were to a pound to know that he was holding more money than he'd had in his whole life – more money than even Dudley had ever had._

_'Might as well get yer uniform,' said Hagrid, nodding towards Madam Malkin's Robes for All Occasions. 'Listen Harry, would yeh mind if I slipped off fer a pick-me-up in the Leaky Cauldron? I hate them Gringotts carts.' He did still look a bit sick, so Harry entered Madam Malkin's shop alone, feeling nervous._

_Madam Malkin was a squat, smiling witch dressed all in mauve._

_'Hogwarts, dear?' she said, when Harry started to speak. 'Got the lot here – another young man being fitted up just now, in fact.'_

In the back of the shop, a boy with the blondest hair he'd ever _seen_ and some strange scar-like markings on his face was standing on a footstool, while a second witch pinned up his long black robes. Madam Malkin stood Harry on a stool next to him, slipped a long robe over his head and began to pin it to the right length.

"Hi!" the boy said immediately, tone as bright as his hair. "Hogwarts too?"

"Yes," said Harry.

"Have you gotten all your stuff yet? I was really quite bewildered when the letter came telling me I was a _wizard_, of all things, and when I realised I was supposed to send the reply the owl as long gone, so..." he laughed sheepishly. "Thankfully, another owl came by after a few days with the same letter, and so I replied and said, _hell yes_ I want to study in Hogwarts! And _then_ I realised I didn't have any idea where to get my school stuff... Bleargh..."

Harry couldn't help but give a small snort of laughter then, despite his attempts at being polite. The blond was unexpectedly friendly, which was really quite nice, he decided.

"How'd you find your way here, then?" he found himself asking the other boy, curiosity getting the better of him. "There's no way anyone would expect a whole street of magical shops to be hidden right here in the middle of London..."

Unusually vivid blue eyes glinted with amusement, as if sharing an inside joke with nobody. "There must have been something weird about my reply, 'cause the school sent a set of instructions for muggleborns – that's what they call people who aren't born into a magical family, I think – and in the end I just took the Knight Bus here, even though it's not advisable for most..."

"What's that?"

"Hmm... it's a crazy, _crazy_ magical bus, which appears randomly when you stick your arm into the road, so it's kinda like a taxi, too," the boy shrugged. "It's fast, but it goes at such insane speeds with so little control most people don't like it much."

"Oh." Harry blinked. _Well, that's... interesting, I guess._ "So, you're here with..." he trailed off a little, even though he didn't really know why. "...your parents...?"

"Erm," the boy began awkwardly, then raised his shoulders slightly with a half-hearted smile. "I... don't have any. So I'm here alone."

"Oh," Harry said again, taken aback by the unexpected revelation. "I'm sorry." The other boy gave him a reassuring smile, mumbling something vaguely.

There was a slightly uncomfortable silence between them, before Harry surprised himself by offering, "Me too. My parents... died, when I was a baby." He ducked his head slightly, feeling rather awkward with such a subject.

The surprise and the brief, intense flash of what seemed like _understanding_ in those blue eyes almost startled him, but both of them relaxed a little afterwards.

"Sorry," the boy said sincerely. "So... Did someone come along with you to buy your school stuff?"

"Yeah," Harry said, rather eagerly. "His name is Hagrid and he's the gamekeeper at Hogwarts. I think he's brilliant! In fact – hey look – he's right there now." He nudged his head towards the front window, as his arms were currently pinned down by the long black robes. Hagrid was standing there, grinning at Harry and pointing at two large ice-creams to show he couldn't come in.

The other boy leaned a little to get a better look, and quickly straightened again when the tailor witch reminded him to be careful _not_ to fall off the stool.

"I'll take your word for that," he grinned. "He looks quite awesome."

Their measurements were soon done, and both boys were told to come back later for their finished robes. They stepped out of the shop, and it was only then Harry noticed the "scars" on the other boy's face were, in fact, strange markings which looked just like whiskers.

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**And here ends the first chapter. *evil!* (if it helps, the next chapter's going to be 1K of words, at _least._)**

**I'm working on this crossover, slowly. ^^;; The style I'm using for this fic, as you might have noticed, is quite different from my other fics. There's an obvious influence of JKR for obvious reasons... And the extremely British and still very 'young' setting sort of brings to mind another female writer – Enid Blyton. I've read all of her books since I was about 6, y'know, and that's how my English went from absolute zero (it's not my first language!) to today's level.**

**Anyway, Naruto's backstory regarding how and why he's here is going to be quite interesting... which is, of course, why I'm saving it up for later. (: I'm currently tearing my hair out over what wand core Naruto should have (I've already decided on the wood, thank goodness...) so it might be a while before the next chapter's up. If I push the wand part to the third chapter, though, you'd see the second chapter pretty soon.**

**So, which would you rather have? :3**

**~rakku^^**


	2. Square 2: Happy Birthday

**AN: *groaaaaaaans* Writing Hagrid's accent is confusing... And I'm obsessed with authenticity so I kept cross-checking with the book. _**

**Haha never mind me... Anyway! Here's the second chapter, which I decided to post earlier 'cause of the overwhelming response I got with one tiny chapter. Within twelve hours I received **_**at least**_** 60-something email alerts from FFN! _... I was expecting my crossover to sink to the bottom of the sea, but I never thought so many people would be interested in it! Everyone, thank you for the support! ^_^ I really appreciate it.**

**I'll stop rambling here, okay? ^^;;... Here you go, chapter two. (:**

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><p><strong>Square #2: Happy Birthday~<strong>

"Made a new friend?" Outside Madam Malkin's shop, Hagrid smiled kindly at the two boys behind his massive beard.

"Um..." they both began, surprised, and Harry turned red while the blond boy scratched the back of his head sheepishly. Hagrid boomed a laugh, and handed them an ice-cream cone each despite the other boy's embarrassed protests.

"Really, thanks! Mr... Hagrid?"

"Eh, no need for the "Mister", yeh can just call me Hagrid."

The boy beamed.

"So!" He exclaimed cheerily, landing a hand (which was, thankfully, much lighter than Hagrid's) on Harry's shoulder. "D'ya think we could go buy our school stuff together?"

Harry smiled. "Sure, why not? We might need to wait a bit, though..." He paused, waving his ice-cream at the other boy. "I don't think any bookshop would allow us in with these."

"Mm, true..." The blond shrugged. "Well, there's still much to see anyway – c'mon!" And Harry found himself tugged along the rows and rows of shops, happily confused by all the magical things which made up the place.

"Hey – what're those for?" He heard the other boy ask Hagrid curiously, peering through the window of Quality Quidditch Supplies_. _"Yeah," Harry piped up, also interested. "And what's Quidditch, anyway?"

Hagrid stared at them both for a moment, too shocked to reply.

"...Um?" Harry ventured.

"Blimey, Harry – I keep forgettin' how little yeh know – _both _of you – not knowin' about Quidditch!" He slapped a hand to his brow, and Harry saw two blond eyebrows shoot up at the sheer force behind the action. (It was definitely more than enough to knock a normal person out... but Hagrid, like everyone and everything he'd seen so far, was far from normal.)

"Quidditch's our sport. Wizard sport. Loads of people are crazy over it, it's like – like football in the Muggle world. It's played up in the air on broomsticks and there's four balls – eh, it's sorta hard ter explain the rules."

"...In the air?" There was a strange eagerness in the other boy's voice.

"Yeah, the players ride broomsticks and fly around the pitch—"

" – Fly?" Blue eyes were wide with wonder.

Hagrid chuckled. "Yep. Yeh get to see, after school starts. Firs'-years all have flying lessons, and yeh get ter have yer own brooms next year. Yeh can even try out fer the House team. Yeh know what, Harry," he added, turning to Harry with a kind smile. "Yer father was a great flier. Quidditch Captain of the Gryffindor team, he was. Best Chaser I've ever seen."

Harry drew in a breath, suddenly feeling very warm in his stomach. His father had been very good at Quidditch. He had never known...

_"Fly,"_ the blond repeated with a faraway, wistful look in his eyes. "Won't it be nice if you can be as awesome at Quidditch as your dad was?"

"Yeah," he agreed quietly. "That'd be really nice."

His _father._

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"By the way, how long have you known about magic?" The boy asked casually as they looked around Flourish and Blotts, looking for interesting or useful books. "I mean, your dad went to Hogwarts, right? But you seem kinda new to everything 'round here, just like me."

"It's been... only a day, actually," Harry replied wryly. "My parents were a witch and a wizard, yeah, and they went to Hogwarts, but the rest of my mum's family are Muggles. I was sent to live with my mum's sister and her family after my parents died, but they... didn't like magic at all, so they never told me."

"I see..."

"In that case... From what you said earlier, are you from a Muggle family?" Harry asked, feeling curious.

"Eh – kinda, I think. I don't know a lot about my parents, but they never went to Hogwarts, like yours, or anything like that. They didn't use magic, but..." he grinned suddenly. "They weren't exactly normal Muggles either, from what I _do_ know of them."

That was quite a strange statement to make, but Harry just nodded.

"Some of their friends left me stuff, though, so I more-or-less managed to get enough money to open a small vault at Gringotts and pay for my school stuff. I dunno if there's a scholarship, though there should be..." He trailed off, looking distracted, before making a beeline for a certain bookshelf and dragging a surprised Harry along.

They stared at the books there, and both grinned at a certain title – _Curses and Counter-Curses (Bewitch Your Friends and Befuddle Your Enemies with the Latest Revenges: Hair Loss, Jelly-Legs, Tongue-Tying and much, much more._

"Yer not allowed ter use magic in the Muggle world until yer reach seventeen, yeh know," Hagrid commented from behind them, sounding somewhere between amused and rather exasperated. "An' anyway, yeh couldn't work any of them curses yet, yeh'll need a lot more study before yeh get to that level."

"A pity," Harry remarked. "I was hoping to learn how to curse Dudley."

"Dudley?"

"My pig of a cousin."

"Ah." The boy blinked. "Er, okay?"

Harry leant closer, and whispered conspiratorially, "Don't tell anyone else, but Hagrid tried to actually _turn_ him into a pig... though there really wasn't much to change, so he just got a pig's tail. I bet my aunt and uncle are still trying to figure out how to get rid of it..."

The other boy practically stuffed his fist into his mouth to stifle his laughter, to no avail.

Hagrid sighed.

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After they left the foul-smelling apothecary, Hagrid checked Harry's list again.

"Just yer wand left – oh yeah, an' I still haven't got yeh a birthday present."

Harry felt himself go red, and hastily opened his mouth. "You don't have to – "

" – It's your birthday today?" He blinked at the blond. "Really? Awesome! Wait – ack, why didn't someone mention it earlier? Say, how 'bout you go get your present and your wand first, and I'll go get you something too. Meet you at the wand shop later – Ollivanders, right? Okay bye! Happy Birthday!"

...And with that, he dashed off, leaving Harry feeling rather dizzy.

_Happy Birthday indeed._

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**Random Fact: my birthday's two days before Harry's. ^_^ Which means I'm turning sixteen by the end of next month! O:**

**I'll reveal Naruto's wand materials by the next chapter, so look forward to it! (: I think you'll seriously **_**loooooove**_** what I chose as the wood for his wand. It fits him perfectly. *_***

**Hey, how about y'all try to guess what his wand is made of? I'll do a favour for those who get either the wood or the core correct. :D And a favour could mean a preview, y'know...**

**~rakku^^**


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